Alex. Macleod was born at Kyle-Rona, a remote district in the West Highlands of Scotland. One of a large family of boys and girls he was left fatherless when he was nine years old; a circumstance that for him as for his brothers and sisters meant considerable hardship in the Highlands of those days. But whatever he might lack by way of material advantages he was blessed in having relatives who took pains to ensure that he had the inestimable privilege of a Christian upbringing. Thus from his early childhood he was familiar with the Scriptures and with the questions and answers of the Shorter Catechism, he had also the conversation and conduct of the godly to set his own course by, and he was to the end of his life grateful for his early training.
While still very young he was introduced to the profession which he followed all his active life, the sea, first on fishing boats on the waters of the stormy Minch, and latterly on the equally stormy waters off the West Coast of Vancouver Island, where he was in charge of the Life-Saving Station at Tofino.
In 1912 he emigrated to Canada, living for a time on Vancouver Island. When the first world war broke out he returned to the U.K. and served on ships of the Ministry of Munitions sailing to France. In 1922 he returned to Canada, this time accompanied by his wife and family and settled at Tofino, V.I., where the two youngest of the family were born. Here, in an isolated community, he faithfully taught his family of four boys and three girls as he himself had been taught in his youth, Mrs Macleod being a true helpmeet to him in this respect. Yet, notwithstanding his zeal in matters of a religious nature, he later confessed that at the time he did not know the Lord.
For Mr and Mrs Macleod, as for many other parents, the years of world war two were trying and anxious times, for four of their sons and a daughter were in the Services; one son was missing for a long time. After a thrilling escape from Singapore, when that fortress fell, he lived to be united with the family in Tofino. Though Alex. was not insensitive to the Lord’s goodness in bringing his sons safely through many dangers, and despite his zeal in legal duties, he still had to learn that salvation is of Grace.
One of his sons went missing, feared drowned, near their home. This occasioned great grief to his father who in distress of mind prayed the Most High that he himself might die if the young man’s life would be spared. There then came to him such a sense of his utter unreadiness to die that it would seem that he fainted. On recovering himself the words “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” came to his mind with great power and he was enabled to be resigned in humility to the Lord’s will in taking away his son.
This was the beginning of a life of faith that had no trust in self. It was also the entering into many severe trials of that faith. The twin brother of the above-mentioned son was also lost at sea, and soon after another son died after a long and painful illness, but such trials were for him of the kind that “work for good”.
Mr and Mrs Macleod became members in full Communion with the F.P. Church in Winnipeg in 1954. In 1965 Alex. Macleod was ordained an elder in the Vancouver congregation, for by this time he was retired from the Life-Boat Service and was living in this city.
As a man, Alex. Macleod was of a bright and cheerful disposition, as a Christian he was faithful in witnessing to his Lord wherever he might be. This was very evident in the weeks he spent in hospital before he died. One orderly who was very interested in him offered the comment “he was a good man”.
The Kirk Session of Vancouver and the congregation mourn his passing and extend their deep sympathy to the sorrowing widow, the surviving son and daughters.
“The memory of the just is blessed.”
R.M.